Cambridge & District CAMRA

Cambridge Drinking Circuit 1998-2001

Cambridge & District CAMRA is extremely concerned about the formation of
a "drinking circuit" in Cambridge

Youth drinking circuits of large bars have been a feature of larger town & city
centres since the late 1980s and have caused immense public order problems.
They've also distorted the local pub trade, harming community pubs and therefore
consumer choice. Some city authorities are now taking action, refusing
permission for new city centre "beer barns".

Unfortunately Cambridge licensing magistrates and planners are behind the times
on this and have been happy to grant permission for developments.

The developments we mean are listed below. They are all large bars in various trendy
town-centre styles, all of which aim to make most of their money from young
customers on Friday & Saturday nights.

As described in our key article, these are fine individually.
It is the ensemble which is so threatening, especially when there's a lack of other types of
nighttime venues in the area.
These would broaden the appeal of the city centre to other age groups and interests, diluting the effect
of so many youth bars.

Back in 1999 many of the big bar and pub chains announced plans to switch from their trendy
themes to "community" ones - they've realised that's what works in the long term.
The pace of development has indeed slowed down.

However as of 2001 there's no sign of any progress and indeed the public
order problems have attracted a lot of media and government attention.

Quayside, Bridge Street and Trinity Street area

Rat & Parrot (Scottish & Newcastle, converted from Spade & Becket).
They seem likely to sell off or rebrand this due to its poor location (in terms of drinking circuits and expected sales).
It was intended as a competitor to Henry's
(see the 1997 review) but now they own both.
Possible rebrands include their
new "Bar 38" youth theme
or the even newer "Football Crazy" or "Baroque" mediterranean cafe bar (young professionals & students) themes.

Bridge Street

Mitre (Six Continents, formerly Bass) - as part of the Allied Domecq pubs sale to Punch Taverns, Bass got the pick of the pubs.
As predicted here, they bought this Festival Ale House (they bought all of them) but thankfully the
they chose to convert the off-Circuit Fresher & Firkin (Chesterton Road) to a tacky
"It's A Scream" student theme bar.

(Seattle Coffee Co., a subsidiary of Starbucks, inside Waterstones, as of 1999 - the franchise changed in 2000)

Trinity Street

Blue Boar (Yates Group)

Green Street

Slug & Lettuce (SFI Group; briefly a Parisa cafe-bar)

For the future

Other large bar chains are likely to join in, as Cambridge is ten years behind in these developments (but
catching up rapidly).

The Grand Arcade scheme (between Lion Yard, St Andrew's Street and Downing Street) is due to be built between
2004-2007 and is planned to have cafe/bars.